October 30, 2012 1:51pm EDTOctober 27, 2012 11:57pm EDTThere's only one thing that can take Alabama off track, one thing that can stop the Tide from rolling over team after team, year after year. It's the departure of Nick Saban, and that's not going to happen, Matt Hayes writes.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.—They came here with this idea that they believed. Even hung a sign to proclaim it on the revered statue of Bear Bryant that stands in front of this glorious palace of college football.

Mississippi State believes, all right. Believes more than ever—like we all should—that Alabama is so good and so completely in a class by itself, the only thing that ends the Tide’s chokehold on the sport is the departure of the man who started it all.

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And Nick Saban isn’t going anywhere.

“We're not working to be better than other teams,” says Alabama center Barrett Jones. “We’re working against ourselves.”

If that wasn’t clear before, you better believe it is now. That was Saban, veins popping out of his neck, screaming at backups late in another rout in the toughest conference in college football.

It wasn’t about giving up a shutout. It was about giving up on yourself.

“They’re better than that,” Saban said. “It’s about playing the best you can play in every regard.”

Welcome to the Process, everyone. The meticulous and methodical and menacing Process has taken the suspense from the season.

We keep looking for that one flaw; that one area where if the right team in the right place makes all the right moves, we can believe again that someone can beat the Tide.

Now close your eyes if you don’t want the ending ruined: It’s not happening. Not next week in the SEC’s annual showdown of those who have Saban vs. those who still wish they did (that would be Alabama vs. LSU). Not in the SEC Championship Game. Not in 10 weeks in South Florida against whichever poor sap has to play this team in the BCS National Championship Game.

And most certainly not Saturday night, where previously unbeaten Mississippi State was utterly annihilated within every step of Saban’s Process.

The Process that has every player, from All-American to walk-on, painstakingly focused on their role, their job, every single play. That’s how 38-7 happens. That’s how national championships in two of the last three years happens.

That’s how three of four will happen, and how another top three recruiting class will happen and why the Process will start all over two weeks after this one ends.

“The guy next to you knows exactly what he’s supposed to do on and off the field,” said Alabama cornerback Dee Millner. “There is no gray area.”

Pete Carroll used to talk about “Winning Forever.” With Saban, it’s simple: win the moment.

It’s so efficient, it’s sickening. No one veers from the Process. No one steps out of line. Because if they do, there will be hell to pay.

Everyone has a job, everything has a purpose, and when directions are followed, there are no surprises. There are no double-digit underdogs rolling in here and “Believing” in unbeaten seasons.

There’s no belief or hope or dreams. There’s a process. If you follow the process, you win.

There’s something all-powerful about zero room for misinterpretation.

There are no games where the offense gives away six turnovers and loses to a rival. Where the defense misses tackles or takes bad angles. Where a bad game by one player can take down the entire program on any given night.

To truly appreciate the beauty of what Saban has built here, we have to look at what it was like before he arrived at the Capstone. A past that included nearly a decade of futility, including (but not limited to): one coach fired for having an affair with his secretary, one coach leaving the program for a lesser job, one coach fired before he coached his first game, five straight losses to Auburn, and NCAA probation.

So excuse Saban if, for the entire second half of yet another blowout in the nation’s strongest conference Saturday night, he stomped around the sidelines annoyed at what was playing out against Mississippi State. The second-teamers for the Tide looked bored; looked as though they were going through the motions and trying to get out of an unseasonably chilly night.

An hour earlier, Alabama looked like it could beat the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars for the first half of the game, rolling to a 24-0 lead and extending a streak of more than two years since it has trailed at halftime (2010 vs. South Carolina, for those counting). That all changed in the second half, when getting through and getting out became a priority.

And that’s not going to cut it in the world of Saban’s Process.

“Our goal, as players, is to do our job—and do it the best we can,” said Tide safety Robert Lester. “Then do it better than the last time.”

Keep looking for that flaw, everyone. Alabama will keep playing better than it did the play before.